DVT7500 VoiceTracer Audio Recorder

Only a 3, as it was a third party seller from Amazon (was trying out the used model). But it had all the functions I needed, look great, was portable, very clear recording. XLR’s was a big buying point for me. Unfortunately, it didn’t work properly (flash drive issues).

I've been using this for a few months now with an XLR mic and I have no idea why they discontinued it. It had already been dropped by Philips when I bought it, but I took a chance based on the low price. I am in no way displease with my decision. I use it for YouTube voiceovers and love the quality of audio it captures. I am impressed by this recorder. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for its manual (online). Some things I just had to figure out by myself, but it wasn't difficult. By no means does it have a steep learning curve. Anyone can use this device, most assuredly.

I used this product for professional field audio recordings until now. The unit has some quirks. For example, the WAV recordings can only be saved on the onboard storage. Only recordings in mp3 format can be saved on the SD card. One has also to be careful with the sensitivity level when recording. It is very easy to have clipping on the recording, due to an input level being too high. The fine tuning of the input level is difficult and is very sensitive. Another quirk is that using the auto gain will force the recording into mono instead of stereo. The interface is good although not really user friendly. It has external XLR inputs with Phantom power (48V). I did not use this feature much since most of my recordings were field recordings but it does work well. Although it is a recorder principally designed for speech recording, it was also thought as an audio professional field recorder and does the job very well as such. It is a bit heavy but it is a real sturdy construction compared to the cheap plastic cases of the competition. The bad part if that the support service is bad or non-existent. This unit has now been discontinued and is sold by third party vendors not by Philips. It is a bit expensive compared to the competition. If purchasing it, be very careful when connecting the USB port. I stopped using this unit now as the mini USB connector started to break lose from the main board. I opened up the unit and found out that the soldering was getting loose (bad soldering at manufacturing time). It is a micro soldering which makes it very difficult if not impossible to re-solder the connector the motherboard. Ultimately, the connector totally broke loose from the board. It is too bad as this unis is simply of a very good audio quality. The microphones especially are quite good, compared to my replacement Tascam unit.

PLAY BACK TOO NOISY, PLAY BACK VOLUME TO LOW WITH MONITER SPEAKERS TIMER NEED TO BE LIKE VOICE RECORDER TIMERS LIKE DVT4050

The Philips DVT7500 VoiceTracer Audio Recorder produces very good recordings using the built-in microphones, and also allows you to use external mikes, including XLR (using the provided adapter) for more flexible placement, and line-level inputs such as an electric guitar or keyboard. You can even use both the internal mikes and the external inputs devices simultaneously. The format of the recording can be set everywhere from 128kbps mp3 (suitable for voice recording) to 24bit/96kHz WAV (uncompressed). Keep in mind that if you wish to record to external media (up to 64 GB micro SD-card), you can only use the 128kbps mp3 format, so this is really meant for recording meetings, lectures, or situations where very high quality musical reproduction is not important. However, even at the highest quality, there is something like 8 hours of recording time available on the internal memory, so this limitation should not generally be a problem. The design of the unit is good overall, although there are a few peculiarities. For instance, there is a dedicated Noise Cut switch, presumably for speech recording, where if activated, the recording is mono-only, and the quality is severely reduced. Nowhere are these restrictions mentioned in the User Manual (supplied on the device; you'll need to copy it to a computer to read), and I initially had a terrible time trying to figure out why the device was seemingly not accepting my recording settings with regard to format, etc. Also, it is surprising that the Noise Cut is the sole setting which is not relegated to the Quality Settings along with the other recording parameters. One other peculiarity I noticed is that, after having set the microphone Gain, when returning to the recording screen, the Gain adjustment will not have been set. You apparently have to press the Focus button to activate it. All of these things the user can get used to, and the DVT7500 makes fine recordings, but I recommend making many trial recordings just to become familiar with the various quirks in the software design. Were these idiosyncrasies not present, this device would rate 5 stars

I do a lot of vlogging and to that end I purchased a Shure VP-83F hotshoe microphone. One of the advantages of this microphone was the ability to record separately to a micro-sd card. It records sound very well albeit only in mono and I've been using it for well over a year now with good results. The Philips Voicetracker DVT7500 however simply blows the Shure microphone out of the water when it comes to sound quality. The DVT7500 has not just one microphone, not two but three separate microphones built into it and records in stereo. The Philips is about the size of an MP3 player with nice large buttons on the front and side which are easy to reach and use when you are recording with it. Built in it has 16Gb of memory and also has the ability to take up to a 64Gb Micro-SD card to extend your recording time. The DVT7500 offers you basically two types of output, MP3 compressed audio and WAV 16 bit uncompressed audio. The WAV files are obviously much larger than the MP3 files but do produce noticeable cleaner audio although to be honest recording in either of the MP3 formats (128Kbps or 196Kbps) produces really good sound anyway. The 16 bit WAV format allows you to record in 44kHz, 48kHz or 96kHz plus you also get the option to record in file popping 24 bit 96kHz (you really will need to record to a Micro-SD if you choose this option) which produces the cleanest audio I've heard from a microphone yet. If you are recording at the lowest MP3 128Kbps setting you will get a whopping 270 hours worth of recording time just from the built in 16Gb memory itself. If you add a 64Gb micro-SD that increases over 1000 hours of worth recording time. You get 3 sockets on the side of the DVT7500, one for headphones, one for an external microphone input (not entirely sure why you would need another microphone since this does such an awesome job) and the third is an XLR input (more on that in a bit). You charge with DVT7500 with a standard micro-USB connection and the internal battery allows up to 30 hours of continuous recording time. Unlike most recording devices, the DVT7500 actually has a full color 2 inch display showing you all the settings, recording modes etc. Whilst recording this also shows you in stereo your recording levels so that you can easily know whether you are peaking or not. Along with the visual display on the screen there is a small LED at the top which also comes on when you are peaking. Between the two it is very easy to see whether you need to increase your gain or decrease it and that is very easily achieved by a dial on the side which allows up to -20db. The XLR input is used to connect an external musical instrument directly to the DVT7500 for recording. To do this the DVT7500 comes with a small sleeve that fits over the bottom into which you can plug your guitar, keyboard etc. Whilst recording your instrument the microphones on top are also recording for a full sound but obviously the instrument you have plugged in has a nice clear and undistorted input. Along with the actual recorder itself, Philips has supplied a nice little carrying pouch, a Micro-USB to USB charging cable, a 3.5mm input cable and most surprisingly of all a "dead cat" wind reducer. These you normally need to buy separately although in this case it is not the standard wooly "dead cat" but more of foam hat. It does cut down on wind noise and therefore does help a bit but is not as effective as the wooly variety. A couple of things that I don't like about the DVT7500 is that audio does not automatically spill over from internal memory to the Micro-SD card. You have to choose which one you wish to record to in the menu. It would have also been nice if the TFT display was touch screen (virtually everything has a touch screen display nowadays) although operating the Philips is easy enough without touch screen functionality. Overall this is the best audio recorder that I've had and I absolutely love it. It is small enough to not get in the way and the sound reproduction with the 3 microphones is truly amazing. The DVT7500 has replaced my Shure microphone as my go to audio recorder.

I bought my unit new via a clearance site owned by Amazon. I am also an experienced radio broadcaster & author of an audio book for those who want to audio podcast. There are a lot of new models of audio recorders aimed at podcasters. This older model can also fill the bill, but some may find it a bit confusing, as it tries to be a lecture recorder, a music recorder, a pro recorder for external XLR mics AND a music player! There are settings for pro use and recording qualities beyond the needs of most people. READ the instructions for this "Swiss Army Knife" of recorders or you will get hopelessly lost!

I live working with audio, and I was happy to receive the Philips recorder for review. However I was split between the giving it high and low marks. While there are many good features, it falls short of competition from Zoom and Tascam. The most important issue is the lack of a clear target audience. For example, it mentions to be "for music" on the packaging. However having the XLR input optional (and with a fragile connector) makes it feel more like a field recorder. Lack of basic features, like being able to charge and record at the same time, lack of easy to use gain controls, and music targeted utilities like a metronome and a tuner also tips the scale in the general direction than music targeted package. However as a field recorder, Tascam DR-22WL would have more features, and be more affordable at the same time. For events, Zoom H4N , or Tascam DR-44WL would do a better job. There are many better choices for a portable studio, DSLR recording etc. Given all the alternative I found it difficult to find a niche that would make the Philips shine. Another major issue is the non-intuitive UI. For example, you need two clicks for recording, which is common with other devices. However once you enter the recording mode (the first button press), there is no way to exit, except for actually starting the recording (I could not find any button to cancel it, unless there is a hidden combination, or something like that). There is no easy way to control recording gain on the main screen, nor a proper menu architecture to control settings. On its own metrics, the device looks nice, records well. So I would not want to give it a lower rating. However when compared to competition this might not be the best choice

Philips DVT7500 recorder was exactly what I needed. I needed it not as a music instrument recorder but sound recorder and player. This one (in happy difference with some other voice recorders) have excellent 2 watt speaker and perfect recorded file position display. The other recorders-mp3 players (mainly radio mp3 players) do have very good speaker (2 or even 3 watts) but have just 2 digit minutes display. So, they are incapable to say you where you are when listening to a long, sometime 12 hours long recordings. You do need sometime to learn this special philips recorder inner orders. Initially I was even ready to think that it was useless one, like so many others that I have. I was utterly wrong! My worries were that it do not save automatically its position in the file when you disconnect the recorder. But it, in reality, give you the opportunity to mark you file in many places, where you can arrive later at your will. And this give the advantage to not only to know where you was the last time in a given file, but give you opportunity to know your positions in many files in the same time. For me, who listen to many different books and recorded programs in many languages, this ability was really vital. Finally I found what I needed! Absolutely superb recorder!!!

Je cherchais un enregistreur avec une batterie incorporée. Pour moi, c'est ce qui est le plus déterminant dans un bon enregistreur... il n'a rien de plus agaçant que des piles qui lâchent en plein enregistrement. La qualité est exceptionnelle, puisque vous pouvez enregistrer par connexion XLR (alimentation 24 v) . Je ne comprend pas tout ces jeunes qui ne jurent que par ZOOM. Phillips est une grande marque. Donc les musiciens et autres utilisateurs exigeants... Vous pouvez vous précipiter sur cet appareil, qui est en plus joli et bien fini. Satisfait de l'équipe Amazon qui m'ont retourné un premier appareil défectueux.

Einfach zu bedienen. Gute Verarbeitung. Negativ: Warum keine Möglichkeit 48khz bzw 44,1khz bei 24 Bit aufzunehmen? Umsetzung des XLR Eingangs als Adapter ist eine unglückliche Lösung. Zu Einen muss man diesen getrennt Laden/ Einschalten usw. Zum Anderen hat man dieses nervige XLR Verbindungskabelnauf der linken Seite-mit der Gefahr, dass man damit irgendwo hängen bleibt. Ausserdem kommt man mit dem Adapter kaum an die Löschen Taste

Now I have had this a little while and tested it in various places, I can honestly say that I'm really impressed. The recording quality is very high and there is no background hiss when using a mic in. Great for recording interviews for podcasts using the built in microphones and the other day I recorded a whole two day conference, using the XLR inputs - excellent recording and didn't have to worry about the battery. Being able to remove the XLR adapter is a major bonus as it makes the device smaller enough to drop into your pocket. So, the performance is top and couldn't recommend it more. What is a little annoying is that the tripod mount is on the XLR adapter; however, you secure the XLR adapter with two small screws to the main body, so in theory you could make a tripod adapter to fit that (this is what I'm going to do). If you want something that can be used for many different recording situations, then this device really is for you.

Used it to provide backing audio file for panto video I'm creating. Easy to use, good battery life.